Happy Easter

We can finally feel spring coming and it feels wonderful.  Yesterday it was in the high 40's.  We were outside of course and I turned around to spot Ellie in a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops.  Forty degrees feels like ninety in our world.

Yesterday our neighbor (we have THE BEST neighbors ever) had the kids come over and they made this for me.

I absolutely LOVE IT!  She had two jars.  The one inside holds the daffodils and then you place jelly beans and Peeps inside the larger jar.  It is so cute and the kids had fun making it with her.

We are looking forward to spending Easter with our extended family at our house tomorrow and hoping the snow continues to melt.  I want to wish each of you a very beautiful and blessed Easter!

Two for One

I'm all about getting something on sale and digital scrapbooking often makes me feel like I am getting something on sale.  I can create one layout and use it for all of my children.  I frequently do this and it feels like I am getting two for one....gotta love that.

A couple of days ago I created this page for Ellie.

Amelia saw it and said "I like that page", can I have one too......OF COURSE!

I've written before about how much I love handwriting.  I think it seems so personal and in their case right now, it shows growth.  I quick typed out a little questionaire for them and had them fill it out using a fine point    marker so that it would show up.  They love doing stuff like this and it is always fun to have them involved in their own memory keeping.  I am always scanning their artwork, writing samples and everything else that truly documents who they are at various stages of their growth.  Photoshop makes it so easy to incorporate these items into their pages.

Here  are some screenshots that show how simple this is.  I scanned in Mia's questionaire and placed it on the layers palette.

I then changed the blending mode (I love my blending modes!) to "Multiply" and that was it......easy peasy!

When we are recording memories, it is very easy to focus on the photos but what about other things.  Handwriting, artwork, certificates, etc. tell a story as well.  Don't forget that these items can bring a whole different element to your scrapbook.

Documenting a Decade Album

I have several ongoing projects that I am very passionate about that I add to year to year.  My "Documenting a Decade Album" is one of them.  Katie Pertiet came up with this idea in 2010 to document each year of the decade.  She created a series of templates and I immediately knew this was a project that I wanted to participate in.  My husband and I met in 2000 and let's just say that by 2010 our lives were very different than in the year 2000.  I took Katie's fabulous templates and "tweaked" them to fit my style.  I loved doing this project and reflecting on each year that went by.

As I was creating the album, I decided to make "chapters" for each year.  Included in the "chapter" is the title page for the year which includes our family photo, a spread for the family and each of my children as well as a closing page that summarizes the year.

I was very excited for this project and plugged right through it.  I had my album back in 2010 and I'll say that it is one of my favorites.  I love being able to look back and see our growth as a family as well as the growth for each of my children.  After I got the album back, I decided that there was no need to stop at a decade so I am continuing to add to it each year.  I just think if I can keep at this project for many more years, what a fabulous summary of our family life and history.

I recently created our pages for 2012.

Our Chapter Cover:

Our children's spreads:

Our Family Spread:

Family Highlights for the Year:

As you can see, I used the same format and background colors for each page.  I merely changed the colors in the focal base to accent my photos.  Having a system in place really allows these pages to come together rather quickly because most of the decisions have already been made.  I love going through this album now.  I know that if I can keep at it for 20 more years that I will be elated to have all of these photos and information together in one place.

All products are from Designer Digitals.